Goodbye Fireplace Man
by Karissagrace
Summary: (Set during the last scene of The Girl In The Fireplace) What if The Doctor saw Reinette the night she died instead of the day after? One shot chapter. Told by The Doctors POV.


**I saw the episode The Girl In The Fireplace, and as much as I loved the ending, it was sad too. I didn't like how The Doctor wasn't able to see Reinette because he arrived to late and she died. It was to sad. Then I decided to write rewrite the ending. I also posted it on my Wattpad profile. My profile is KarissaGrace just to let you guys know so you don't think I stole the idea/story. Hope you guys like it.**

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"Pack a bag." I told Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson -or Reinette as most of her friends call her- from behind the flames of her fireplace.  
"Am I going somewhere?" Reinette called from the other side.  
"Go to the window. Pick a star. Any star." She smiled and ran toward the window. I dashed back to the TARDIS to check on Rose and Micky the idiot. After checking on them, I ran back to the fireplace. I spun the wall around to reveal Versailles, France in 1758. Reinette was laying on her bed. She looked pale. She coughed hard and long. When she looked up she realized I was at the fireplace.

"Doctor!?" She sounded excited, as if she hasn't seen me in years. She smiled at me but it looked weak. "You came back!"  
"Of course I did." I walked over to her bed and kneeled down. "Why do you look sick? You looked perfectly fine when I saw you not two minutes ago."  
"Doctor," she looked deep into my eyes "that was six years ago." I gasped.  
"What year is it?" I already knew the answer, but I wanted to see I was right. I was praying I was wrong.  
"1764."  
The year Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson died of sickness.  
"Reinette, I am sorry for leaving you for so long. Time can go by so fast."  
"It is okay, Fireplace Man." She said. Fireplace Man. That's what she called me when we first met.  
"I thought it would only be about six minutes that I would leave you waiting For me to return, not six years." She looked at her ghastly pale hands.  
"You wouldn't be able to heal me, would you?" I shook my head.  
"No, I'm sorry. You didn't get to see the stars or travels long with me and now your too sick to even sit up."  
"Monsieur, it is okay. All dreams eventually end." She spoke softly. We went silent for a few minutes. The only sound was Reinette's heavy breathing.  
"If there is anything I can do, please tell me." I said as she coughed.  
"There is one thing." Her voice cracked a little from the coughing.  
"And that is?"  
"Please stay with me. I'm only minutes away from death and I would want my last moment to be with a friend." Her eyes looked into mine. They pleaded me to stay.  
"Of course." I replied. I took a chair from a corner form her room and sat in it.  
"Doctor."  
"Yeah?"  
"You say you are from the future, so know what's going to happen next, do you?"  
"Yes."  
"Is this the last night I walk among this ground, to breath the same air as the living?" I was silent.  
"Um..."  
"It is okay, you do not need to tell me my own fate, for I already know the truth."  
"Reinette, don't talk like that."  
"Monsieur, I know this is my last night. I can feel it." She grabbed my hand. Her grip was weak. She was about to give out. "Before I pass, I need to give you this." Using her other hand, she stretched her arm out to her nightstand and grabbed a letter. She handed me the letter. "Please read it after I pass."  
"Reinette-"  
"Doctor, thank you for saving me. Thank you for being a truly wonderful man. Thank you for staying with me. Goodbye, Fireplace Man." She laid her head on her pillow softly. Her eyes fluttered shut.

I let go of Reinette's hand and kissed her forehead lightly. "Goodbye Reinette."

I walked back to the TARDIS with the note Reinette gave me. It was upsetting, watching her last moments. But it was her last wish. It was the least I could do for her after I left her for six years. Rose noticed the glum expression plastered on my face.  
"You all right?" She asked, her voice was laced with concern.  
"I'm always all right." Mickey sensed that I needed to be alone because he told Rose to go with him to another section of the TARDIS. I opended up the letter Reinette gave me and read it silently.

_"My Dear Doctor, The path has never seemed so slow, and yet I fear I am nearing its end. Reason tells me that you and I are unlikely to meet again, but I think I shall not listen to reason. I have seen the world inside your head and know that all things are possible. Hurry though, my love. My days grow shorter now and I am so very weak. God speed, my lonely angel."_

That was when I did the math. Reinette was born in 1721 and she died in 1764.  
Reinette was only forty-three when she died.


End file.
